


Green in the Hills

by Coymoonrising



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Lupin Family, Wales, dragon - Freeform, happy fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-17
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-05-08 02:28:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14684541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coymoonrising/pseuds/Coymoonrising
Summary: For a wizarding family, dragons are a fairly normal thing in life. But this was no ordinary family, and this was not an ordinary encounter.A small happy family fic! Good feels.





	Green in the Hills

“How is he?”

“Hm?” From where she had been watching through the kitchen window, Hope turned. She hadn’t heard her husband come in the door, and at his sight she smiled and happily leaned into his touch. “Oh, he’s fine. He’s out in the garden again, playing with his toys.”

Hope stepped aside for him to peek through, and Lyall couldn’t help but sigh. At the far end of the garden, a stone wall perhaps knee high had been transformed into a battlefield as a pair of tiny, magical figurines clashed on the gray stone: Sir Cadogan, a Knight of the Round Table, and the scaly and fearsome Wyvern of Wye. In the afternoon sunlight, Cadogan’s armour reflected the sunlight into his eyes, and Lyall blinked as the dragon shot harmless sparks from its snout to the delight of the small boy watching them duel. Remus would have been the very picture of a lively child if not for the fresh scar clearly visible on his arm, or the tired, sickly pallor of his skin. He hadn’t slept well in several days, as the swollen girth of the moon threatened to shatter this peace in just few days.

“At least he’s having fun,” Lyall said, though that did nothing to improve the guilt. 

“He’s alright, you know,” Hope said gently. “And I expect he’ll be happy to see you.”

Lyall nodded. But still in his travelling cloak, he wasn’t ready just yet to have a six-year-old wrapped around his legs. He undid the fastenings and hung it near the door.

“I still don’t understand it though,” he said quietly as he worked. 

“What’s that?”

“Why he likes them so much. Dragons, I mean.”

Hope paused, giving him a curious look. “What do you mean?”

“Well, it’s not as though they’re different from any other animal,” Lyall explained. He shrugged off one shoe, and then the other, placing them neatly beneath his hanging cloak. “Their blood has some interesting properties, of course, but the animals themselves? They’re sort of… hulking lizards. They fly around eating sheep and leaving droppings the size of cars. They’re just animals.”

Hope gave him a look. “ _ Just _ animals? Lyall, they’re  _ dragons _ ! They’re large, they’re magical, and they breathe fire! They’re incredible, and--they’re  _ dragons _ !” She realized that she had flung her arms out for emphasis only when Lyall’s lips split into a highly amused grin. She put them back down. “My point is: how could you not be amazed by them?”

Lyall couldn’t help himself: he laughed. “Your Muggle is showing.”

Hope smirked. “Your arsehole is showing.”

Lyall laughed again, but he shrugged, his expression conceding defeat. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “I don’t mean it in a harsh way--I find it endearing. I love how intrigued you are by these things sometimes. I don’t even think about them. And sometimes the small things are the most important.”

“Small things?” said Hope, raising her brow. “Dragons aren’t small.”

“You’d be surprised,” Lyall replied. “Some breeds only get to be as large as a horse.”

Hope opened her mouth to reply when the ground beneath their feet began to shake. It was over in an instant, but that was all it took to dislodge picture frames from the walls and shatter across the floor. A black shadow swooped across the kitchen floor from out over the garden. 

Their little boy screamed. 

Together, Hope and Lyall tore across the kitchen and to the back door. Lyall took hold of the knob and wrenched it open, and Remus was just reaching the other side--but instead of terror, the look on his face was of unbridled glee.

“Mam!” he screamed, pointing behind him, across the garden wall where his figurines lay toppled and forgotten. “Mam, Dad! Look!” He pulled on the hem of his father’s sleeve, and he slapped at his mother’s hands. “It’s a dragon!”

And so it was: she was the size of a house, with bright green scales reflecting the sun like thousands of tiny emeralds--and she had one of the neighboring farm’s sheep halfway down her maw. She circled overhead and through a puff of gray smoke from her nose, a muffled roar billowing from her elongated throat. As she passed over the roof once more, the entire house trembled under her wings.

Hope and Lyall could only stare, mouths agape. 

“What kind do you think it is?” Remus squealed, pointing at it harder. “Oh, wait--I know! I know it! it’s a Welsh Green! That’s my favourite! I want to go and see!”

This snapped Lyall back to his senses. “ _ No! _ No, you stay right here--I’ll be right back!”

Hope turned, catching him by the hand. “Where are you going?”

Lyall hesitated. Her eyes were sparkling, lit with the same excitement as their son. But there was a worry there, bleeding in. “I need my wand--I have to get it out of here--”

“Wait, why?” asked Hope. “It’s not doing anything!”

“It’s eating the neighbour’s flock!” Lyall shot back. “It’s going to bring a million obliviators to our house!” He watched the dragon consume it’s meal whole, praying to himself: “Don’t stop here. Don’t land. Just take the sheep and--”

“Whooaa!” Remus’ voice broke with the sheer pitch of his excitement as the dragon came down hard directly in the center of the terrified herd, scattering white blobs and snapping at their ankles. She grabbed one from behind and tossed into the back of her mouth, and it was gone. 

If this went on much longer, there wouldn’t be a herd left. Lyall turned, heading for the kitchen, but Hope caught his fingers in hers. 

“What are you going to do?”

Lyall stared at her as if it was obvious. There was a  _ dragon outside his house _ and he needed to--what? He was struck suddenly with the reality of her question: what  _ had _ he been intending to do? He couldn’t attack the dragon--he couldn’t even shoo it off. He wasn’t trained! It was at least ten times his size.  _ It breathed fire _ . 

He turned back into the kitchen, towards the fireplace where the little jar of Floo sat on the mantle. No, that wouldn’t work, either: all the daytime workers had gone home for the day, just as he had. There’d be nobody there to answer his call, much less respond to it. 

“I--I don’t know,” he said, and for a moment he was helpless to do anything but watch as the dragon cleaned her scales in a crater of her own make. The field, formerly a sleek, elegant swath of green, was now a mess of exposed earth and rocks and a smattering of sheep blood. He groaned, and Hope slid his fingers into his to give them a squeeze.

“You’re right,” she said quietly from beside him: “they’re not interesting at all!”

“Funny,” he groaned. 

“I’m not the one you need to worry about,” she laughed, and Lyall glanced down to Remus, who had gathered his toys and clutched them to his chest. He was practically vibrating with excitement, craning his neck to get a better look over the field. 

Lyall frowned. Then, sighed. He was stuck: there was no way to win. That is, if he could even lose a battle he never fought…

But then, against himself, Lyall smiled.

“Remus,” he said quickly, tapping his son on the shoulder. “How would you like to go upstairs? We can climb out my bedroom window, to the roof--get an even better view.”

Remus gasped, eyes widening like dinner plates. Without another word he bolted through the kitchen door, back through the house. 

“Don’t go near the window without me!” Lyall called after him.

At least he was having fun.


End file.
